KB SSL Enforcer

from https://kbit.dk

(239)

55,682 users

Overview

Automatic security, browse encrypted.

This extension enforces encryption for websites that support it as much as currently possible in Chrome. This gives you added security and privacy for your browsing automatically and transparently. This is particularly important on insecure networks, such as public wifi in e.g. coffee shops and hotels.
It is not completely secure against the infamous Firesheep, but it does minimize the risk greatly. See the section on complete enforcement for technical details and more on when this will be possible.
Features:
- Automatically detects if a site supports SSL (TLS) and enforces all subsequent requests to be over SSL
- As soon as a domain is set to be enforce, the browser will not send any unencrypted requests for that domain (unless the site deliberately enforces not using encryption, see the section on complete enforcement)
- Flexible options for overriding the auto-detection
- Caches which sites support SSL (respects incognito mode)
- Open source (GPLv2 or later)
Changelog:
https://code.google.com/p/kbsslenforcer/wiki/Changelog
Issue tracker:
https://code.google.com/p/kbsslenforcer/issues/list
Complete enforcement:
Due to Chrome limitations KB SSL Enforcer detects SSL on the very first visit to a page and is unable to block the unencrypted request from going through while this is happening. It will let that page load and if it is detected to support SSL, all subsequent requests to that domain will be enforced automatically to use SSL before the unencrypted request is sent from the browser.
The unencrypted request only goes through on the very first page visit where it's detecting SSL support. The setting will be saved and survives reboots and all. The only way to stop enforcing SSL is to manually set it to ignore SSL on that domain or if the extension detects that the site is trying to enforce an unencrypted connection and therefore backs off by not enforcing it from then on.
This first insecure request could send a cookie in the clear, which would give anyone with tools like Firesheep an opportunity to use your account on that site. But this only happens if they catch it during that first request and if it includes sensitive information, such as your logged in session. All subsequent requests, even after restarting the browser and rebooting the computer, will enforce encryption.
Permissions:
The manifest file states the permissions requested:
https://code.google.com/p/kbsslenforcer/source/browse/trunk/chrome%20extension/manifest.json
* *://*/
* This is for accessing pages on all domains and both with and without SSL
* tabs
* This is for accessing information on whether a tab is in incognito, so it can be respected
* webRequest
* This is for intercepting the unencrypted requests and detecting whether the site doesn't support encryption by redirecting encrypted requests to the unencrypted site
* webRequestBlocking
* This is for blocking the unencrypted requests while determining whether it needs to be redirected
The project is open source and any scrutiny of the code or the extension's behavior is encouraged. If you have any comments, please open an issue on the issue tracker:
https://code.google.com/p/kbsslenforcer/issues/list
Feedback:
Any questions or feedback are welcome in the issue tracker linked above, which has features to manage and notify people of any issues, so they can be fixed and we can all have a better extension. Please keep the user reviews section of this page to just reviews. Thanks.
Developed by KB IT:
https://kbit.dk